By Shashi P.B.B. Malla
Freedom House is a non-profit research institute/think tank based in Washington, D.C.
It is best known for political advocacy surrounding issues of democracy, political freedom and human rights.
This prestigious organization has recently published “Freedom in the World”, its annual global report for 2023 on political rights and civil liberties, composed of numerical ratings and descriptive texts for 195 countries and 15 non-sovereign territories.
This is how the countries of South Asia fared in 2023:
Total Score & Political Civil
Status Rights Liberties
Afghanistan 6 not free 1 5
Bangladesh 40 partly free 15 25
Bhutan 63 partly free 30 33
India 66 partly free 33 33
Maldives 44 partly free 21 23
Nepal 62 partly free 28 34
Pakistan 35 partly free 14 21
Sri Lanka 54 partly free 22 32
From the above figures, it is clear that only Afghanistan is the odd man out. It is the only country ‘not free’, all the other countries are ‘partly free’.
As regards the total score, Nepal ranks third among the 8 members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Nepal also ranks 3rd regarding political rights, and 1st in civil liberties (just before Bhutan and India).
Is this then a reason to rest on our laurels, or even to praise the great achievements of the Mafia-like government of the Maoist-dons and their henchmen the Congress-dons, and the Communist-dons?
Not at all!
We should rather aspire to the achievements of countries that through hard work are where they are today.
Austria has a total score of 93, with 37 for political rights (out of 40) and 56 for civil liberties (out of 60).
Switzerland does even better with a total score of 96 (out of 100), and 39 for political rights and 57 for civil liberties.
Corruption Rears Its Ugly Head
- Above all, under the present system of government, Nepal has acquired the dubious reputation of being prone to serial scams – thus a country afflicted by scampedemic!
- The government has definitely not ‘implemented effective anticorruption laws or programmes to prevent, detect, and punish corruption among public officials, including conflicts of interest.’
- We cannot speak of ‘independent and effective auditing and investigative bodies that function without impediment or political pressure or influence.’
- ‘Allegations of corruption involving government officials [ and their near and dear ones ] have not been thoroughly investigated and prosecuted without prejudice or political bias.’
- Allegations of corruption have been given some airing in the media – but these have not been extensive, substantive or effective.
The dons who rule the Nepalese people have, of course, been very effective in taking us for a ride!
Latest Development: So-called ‘Democracy’ in Action
What the dons really think of ‘democracy’ was seen when Pushpa Kamal Dahal-Prachanda of the Maoists reshuffled his cabinet for the 13th time in 14 months!
He also ditched the Nepali Congress again to form a new government with the CPN-UML of discredited K.P. Sharma Oli, the Rashtriya Swatantra Party (RSP) of Rabi Lamichhane and the Upendra Yadav-led Janata Samajwadi Party.
The new development is said to reflect a convergence of leftist forces – as they say ‘birds of a feather flock together’. In that case, what is the RSP doing in such distinguished company, considering the Chinese Communist Party’s most helping hand in bringing about ‘Communist unity’?
It should also be recalled that before the last general elections, Dahal-Prachanda had entered into an electoral alliance with his bosom-pal Shar Bahadur Deuba. But after the elections, Dahal-Prachjanda abandoned the Nepali Congress and formed a unity government with Oli’s CPN-UML. After a year, Dahal-Prachanda then jettisoned his erstwhile partner, to again embrace Sher Bahadur Deuba’s NC. Now the wheel has turned full circle, and Dahal-Prachanda and Oli are together again.
Dahal-Prachanda and his erstwhile comrade-in-arms Baburam Bhattarai are the ‘evil geniuses’ of Nepali politics. They had schemed with the Indian establishment to abolish Nepal’s constitutional monarchy and sadly were able to bring the other party leaders on board.
The tragedy of Nepal’s recent history is that such traitors and vagabonds were able to garner the trust of the Nepalese people in general, and are still playing a major role in Nepal’s destiny.
Will Rajendra Lingden’s Rashtriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) be able somehow be able to end the terrible ‘Communist curse’ and the decadence of the Nepali Congress, to again put the nation on a genuine path of progress?
The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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